NOEL Two days had passed since I had last seen Damian Rouge. He had been talking to her. To Blaise. And I’d seen the look in his scarlet eyes. Even though I had been so far away when I had seen him, I had seen it. It had been the same look that he had held for Rell before he had mercilessly killed her and plunged her soul off the line of the Edge. He would come for her again. I could tell he wanted her. But why? “I can practically smell the anxiety off of you, Noel.” I turn, flinching in surprise. Ezra shifts off the bed, his violet eyes fixed on me as he moves the thick blanket to the side. The bottles of medicine clink uselessly between my hands. I’d thought he was asleep. I— “Stop messing with those, when you don’t even know what you’re doing with them.” The curves of my ears flush with heat. The retort that leaves my mouth is sharp and annoyed. “I do know what they are. The Healer told me, okay? He told me that this,” I point to a narrow, clear tube, filled to the
BLAISE The scent is still strong as ever. I don’t understand. A wince on my lips, I close the door to my room yet again. I’d thrown open all the windows yesterday, to try and air out the entire room of the strange, unsettling smell of pine. But the scent hadn’t faded in the slightest. The room is now freezing, with all the winter wind that had seeped in through the open windows. But still, this smell. I touch the cold sheets of the bed. Still the exact way that I had left it a couple days ago, the blankets chilled of human warmth. I just didn’t want to stay in here anymore. I had come in the hopes of taking a nice nap, but this room doesn’t feel like mine. It feels as if I had walked into a room that belonged to a complete stranger. I don’t make move to shut the windows. WInd continues to blow, ruffling the hems of the silken curtains. The door closes with a click as I go to crash in Noel’s room for the second time in a row. ———————————————————————————————— On the fif
I bite. I bite down as hard as I can on the hand that’s wrapped around my mouth, harder than I’d ever bit down on anything in my entire life. I feel my teeth break flesh. I bite down until I taste the metallic tang of blood. It’s enough to make any wolf recoil in pain. But this man isn’t any wolf. He’s a fucking psychopath, and could probably compete for first place within all the members in that group. He laughs softly. “Fuck.” “I wonder how the Alpha treated you, for you to act so feisty?” He grips the underside of my throat and pushes upward. Panic fills my expression almost immediately, and my fingers scramble wildly against the soft, soaked sheets as my chin is jerked up into an angle close to where I actually feel like my neck will simply break. “Did he not discipline you?” “Go to sleep, Singer.” Darkness rapidly crowds around the corners of my vision the moment he says that. It’s as if he knows a thousand ways to make a person faint. And this is just one of the
BLAISE It’s cold. I blink, eyelids heavy. The right underside of my neck aches with a dull pain, as if I’d slept on it wrong last night. There are blurs of gold, lines streaking vertically across my vision. I blink again, eyes creasing together. The lines slowly come into focus. At first, I’d thought that I was dreaming. But the lines slowly focus into reality. And soon, I’m blinking wildly. I’m in the corner of a massive room where the windows are thrown open on the other side. Cold air pours through, with sharp bursts of wind. The room is empty, spare a bed that’s made to perfection in the center. Freedom. I run for it. But when I stand up, my head slams into something. The entire world shakes. And I instantly tip over, a wave of nausea roiling down my clogged chest as I fall down on my bottom. My outstretched hands hit against the golden bars that I hadn’t thought that actually existed. It’s a cage. Not just a cage. A massive birdcage hanging from the ceiling. And
Think. Think, Blaise, think. “You do know that the Alpha has probably noticed that I’m gone by now, right?” I say, voice quickening as his hand moves down to clasp around the clothed curve of my left breast. A smile flickers on the tips of his lips as he presses his thumb into the soft flesh, as if he knows that I’m trying to stall. “Yes.” “And the other Omega.” I continue, my hands clamping into useless fists by my sides. “If you do anything to him, the Shadow Beta will literally have your head. He’s his favorite. I can guarantee that.” He laughs. “Ezra?” “Do you really think that he is stronger than I am?” A gasp instinctively bursts from my lips as he squeezes his grip, pulling upwards. Panic bleeds into my expression within a second as I wrap both hands around his wrist, digging all ten of my nails into the flesh. But he doesn’t let go. “You’re going to have to try a little harder than that, kitten.” His other hand presses into the small of my back, shifting me for
??? It had begun when the Moon had sunken into the shadows of the clouds and the entire land had descended into darkness. A howl had split the night into a million pieces. The Shadow Pack had finally come to claim the Rouge. Now I lay trembling in a dark cabinet, squeezed into a space that I’m twice bigger than. I dare not even breathe. The Packhouse is eerily silent. Once in a while, an agonized scream or a defeated gasp thunders through the air. Then, it is back to silence. The noise had gotten closer over time. I didn’t even know where our own Alpha was, while the Shadow ravaged our Pack into ashes. But I should’ve known. From the moment Damian Rouge had challenged our previous Alpha and had left his body in shreds, he hadn’t done a single thing for the Pack’s benefit. All he had ever done was either pace like a madman around the lengths of his chambers, murmuring a name over and over under his breath. The other half of the time he spent sleeping with all the female wolv
BLAISE My voice. I can’t speak. I’m back inside the damned birdcage, my chilled hands clasped tightly around the gold-tinted bars. My lips are chapped than they had ever been. And my voice is in complete ruination. He had made me sing for hours. From dusk to dawn. He hadn’t allowed me to stop even when my voice had started to crack and fade, splitting at the ends of each note. And now my voice is gone. When I speak, the words that had used to come out like the softest silk is now rough and ugly. I still hadn’t seen Noel. It had been two days, and I wasn’t even sure if he was dead or alive. I could only do my best. But who knew if that psychopath was as good of a liar as he looked? Noel could be dead, his body buried in the snow. And I wouldn’t even know if he really was. Frustrated tears flow out of my reddened eyes. Then I pull a fist back, slamming my closed hand around the bars. The cage shakes on its hinges. And soon, my body is shaking with silenced sobs. Why. Why wa
BLAISE If not for you, then for me, angel. Christian’s voice echoes in my mind as I touch the Pendant around my throat. Nightfall is descending. Soon he’d be here, any minute now. And I didn’t have neither courage nor the voice to face him. I couldn’t stall any longer. There was no way how. I didn’t know any way how. I squeeze my eyes shut, both hands closing around the Alpha’s signet. My entire body shakes with the anticipation. And I force myself to think back to his voice. Blaise. Love. Will you forgive me? I have used my Dominance on you when I have promised not to. Forgive me, sweet love. A breath thunders through my chest. Sweat beads on the side of my face, as I grip the signet tighter and tighter. My heart crashes against my throat, blood roaring in my ears. In the corner of my mind, I see him. I see his pained eyes, those eyes. Always shining with such brilliance. So gold. Deeper and more serene than any lake that I had ever seen. Blaise. Will you ever l